Jay Amberg's Blog, page 6

Autographed books make great gifts

I hope to see you this Saturday, December 7, at the Glenbrook South High School Holiday Bazaar. I will be selling and signing copies of The Healer’s Daughters, Bone Box, America’s Fool, Cycle, 52 Poems for Men, even Doubloon.

Check out the Bazaar’s Facebook page for more information. Flyer below. Please stop by if you can—autographed books make great gifts.

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Spotlight on Gotta Write Network

The Healer’s Daughters was recently featured on Gotta Write Network. Thanks to Denise Fleischer for the spotlight.

[image error] Remember, this Saturday, December 7, I’ll be signing books at the Glenbrook South High School Holiday Bazaar. Many great vendors will be in attendance; check out the Facebook page for more information.

Holiday Bazaar at Glenbrook South High School

Next Saturday, December 7, I will be autographing books as part of the Glenbrook South High School Holiday Bazaar. I was a teacher at GBS for many years and I’m excited to return. Visit the event’s Facebook page for more details. Hope to see you there.

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Article in Journal & Topics Media

[image error]The Healer’s Daughters received a nice write-up in Journal & Topics Media. The article also mentions my appearance at the upcoming Glenbrook South Holiday Bazaar. More details coming soon.

Local Authors’ Book Festival, November 23

This Saturday, November 23, I will be selling and signing books at the Highland Park Public Library. Thank you to East on Central for co-sponsoring this Local Authors’ Book Festival.

If you’d like your copy of The Healer’s Daughters autographed, or if you’re looking for more great holiday gifts, come by the library from 1–4 p.m. Details can be found here.

THD, illustration 5, Elif’s figurine

The final illustration in The Healer’s Daughters is Elif’s figurine. Does she resemble anyone you know?

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THD: The veiled woman and the sheikh

Near the end of The Healer’s Daughters, the veiled woman and the sheikh meet one more time.

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…Glass rattles when the first bomb strikes nearby.

The thick beard that scratches her wounded face smells of cigarette smoke. He is yanking at her burqa’s seam, rocking on his heels, mewing. She bites her lip. Tastes blood.

A second bomb, even closer, shakes the room’s bare furniture. He lets go of the burqa, runs his right hand down her side and hip, and then clutches the back of her thigh.

Their eyes meet for the first time.… He sees her submissiveness turn suddenly to contempt, a look so fierce and so filled with loathing that he is momentarily frozen by it.

THD: Özlem’s speech at the Aesklepion

Özlem begins the speech that will change her, her mother’s, and her children’s lives.

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Özlem Boroğlu takes a breath before delivering the conclusion of her speech. Standing behind the podium, she looks out from the stage at her audience in the Aesklepion’s ancient theater. The psychiatrists and psychologists gathered from all over Turkey and the Aegean islands have filled the stone seats rising toward the crest of the hill. Her friend Recep Ateş is seated in the front box with Bergama’s mayor, a tall, heavy man who still looks small next to Ateş. The early evening light paints the trees gold; the wind has fallen, and a thick heat is settling in the theater’s bowl.

“We are meeting here today on what people through the ages have believed is holy ground,” she says, her voice rising. She turns slightly to her right and waves her hand. “This spring has been providing healing water for more than twenty-five hundred years. Galen, the father of both pharmacology and psychiatry, practiced here. In fact, he grew up here.…”

TDH: Özlem’s speech at the Aesklepion

Özlem begins the speech that will change her, her mother’s, and her children’s lives.

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Özlem Boroğlu takes a breath before delivering the conclusion of her speech. Standing behind the podium, she looks out from the stage at her audience in the Aesklepion’s ancient theater. The psychiatrists and psychologists gathered from all over Turkey and the Aegean islands have filled the stone seats rising toward the crest of the hill. Her friend Recep Ateş is seated in the front box with Bergama’s mayor, a tall, heavy man who still looks small next to Ateş. The early evening light paints the trees gold; the wind has fallen, and a thick heat is settling in the theater’s bowl.

“We are meeting here today on what people through the ages have believed is holy ground,” she says, her voice rising. She turns slightly to her right and waves her hand. “This spring has been providing healing water for more than twenty-five hundred years. Galen, the father of both pharmacology and psychiatry, practiced here. In fact, he grew up here.…”

THD, illustration 4, The Aesklepion’s Theater

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Here is the theater at the Aesklepion, an important location for Galen and our main characters. As Özlem puts it, “The Aesklepion was a healing center designed to last through the ages, and those practicing medicine here twenty-five centuries ago knew that health required both physical and mental balance.”